Rush have returned to the stage after an 11-year absence with their Fifty Something tour, marking the band’s first performances since drummer and lyricist Neil Peart died of brain cancer in 2020. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson’s decision to resume touring is significant because Peart’s virtuosic drumming and intellectual lyrics were central to Rush’s identity, making the prospect of continuing without him appear unlikely for years.

The tour opened at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum amid nervousness, heavy stage fog and a minor onstage mishap, but the musicians carried on. German drummer Anika Nilles, 43 and three decades younger than Lee and Lifeson, has taken the drum seat for the shows; during “Xanadu”, she dropped a stick, recovered it mid-song and continued, illustrating the pressure and technical demands of performing Rush’s music.